


Academic Calendar

by SylvanAuctor



Category: Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 18:50:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13507650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylvanAuctor/pseuds/SylvanAuctor
Summary: Cheris runs into trouble at Hexarchate University. MoE College AU.





	Academic Calendar

_ “What are you prepared to do, Cheris?” _ Professor Mikodez’s cryptic offer bounced around in Cheris’ head as she lay in bed. What was it about Political Science professors that kept them from making requests in simple terms? Throughout their meeting, he had looked at her as they were both in on some very good joke, or some very well planned coup. It was difficult to tell with Political Science professors at this university. Either way, Mikodez obviously expected her to understand and carry out whatever directive he insinuated. The only obvious thing was that figuring out that directive was going to keep her in school. Where even to start, though? Mikodez was not her advisor, was not even an advisor in the Kel College of Business. Even his interest in her was inexplicable. Mental exhaustion held her down like an autumn sickness, tepid and decaying in her mind. She figured that at least for tonight, she would put aside Mikodez and focus on statistics.

She was just opening her book when Vahenz barged in, talking loudly on her phone.

“Yeah, Zai, I  _ know,  _ but you can’t just let everyone see you partying over that fact. I want to put a stake through that perv barbarian’s heart just as much as you do, but it does not mean you get to broadcast that, in  _ those terms _ especially, in the public forum! Decorum, Zai. … Now I have to go. Please just look at your calendar and see if you can make room for that protest tomorrow, alright? Bye.” She plopped down her backpack, a brightly colored mosaic every progressive political button manufactured in the last decade, and flopped dramatically on her bed. She sighed and looked over at Cheris. “You look like death. You okay?”

“Didn’t think you’d care,” Cheris said. She was perfectly happy to finish college, get a well-paying job and a decent apartment, live a well-directed life and be remembered by a few close family members at a private scattering of her ashes. All of this annoyed Vahenz to no end, and she had previously been very loud about that fact.

“I’m an activist, not an asshole,” she said, taking an earbud out of one ear.. “Here, have a pastry. Sweet red bean paste filling.” Vahenz rooted around in her backpack and pulled out a brown paper bag from within, handing it to Cheris.

Cheris accepted it and took a bite, not entirely without suspicion. It was sweet and flaky, and markedly better than anything served at the campus establishments. “Where did you get this?”

“The Dragonfly,” Vahenz said, with a twinge of pride at Cheris’ approval of her tastes. “It’s an independent bakery just a bus stop away, north. Nice atmosphere, good business practices. Try it some time.” Apparently satisfied that she had filled her duties as a roommate, she put her earbuds back in her ears and closed her eyes.

As usual, Cheris awoke to an empty room the next morning, with Vahenz having already left to some early morning club meeting or other. She groped flailingly for her phone to hit  _ Sleep  _ on her alarm, once, twice, thrice. She reached for it the fourth time, entirely ready to promise herself five more minutes of sleep, when the sound of breaking glass roused her with a shock of adrenaline. She whipped her head around to look at her window, which was now a jagged maw of broken glass. There was more glass on the ground, but strangely, no apparent projectile to have done the smashing. Cheris carefully reached down to the floor to grab her slippers, checked them for shards of glass, slipped them on, and walked to the window to look out at the source of the disturbance. She figured she had been too slow; there was no one there.

“I’ll find you, snailfucker!” she shouted out the window. Her voice failed to fill the snowy emptiness and only made her feel small.

Cheris sent emails to her first period professor and Vahenz, explaining the situation, then filed a service request with Housing, and duct-taped an extra blanket into the window to fend off at least some of the winter air. Then she walked downstairs, checked out a broom and dustpan, and set about cleaning up the glass shards.

She was sweeping in the darkness under her bed when she spotted two glowing yellow eyes. She recoiled immediately, snatched up a long shard of glass in one hand and flipped on her phone’s flashlight with the other. Poised to strike, she shone the light under the bed and came face to face with a flame-red fox, curled comfortably with its long bushy tail lying over its snout, those two bright eyes peering out just above it.

“What the-- Did someone throw you up here?” She lived on the second story, and did not think a fox could jump that high at all, let alone with window-breaking force.

“For a certain definition of  _ throw, _ ” the fox said. “But in the immediate sense, I did jump.”

Cheris blinked. “You can talk? Foxes can’t talk. Can they?”

“Kel don’t ask questions, and yet here we are.”

Cheris decided to ignore the joke. “Why are you here?”

“Shouldn’t you know? Y’all usually call for me.”

“I… What? I never called for a talking fox. Can we get back to how you can talk?”

“That’s not really my department. I’m Shuos Jedao. Nice to meet you, Cheris.”

“How-- Nevermind. You cannot be in my room when the repair people arrive. Or when my roommate is around, she’ll call PETA on me or something.”

“Call who? What year is it?”

Cheris took a deep breath, decided to stop asking questions, and roll with this as best as she could. “2018.”

“Hmm. Have you eaten today?”

“No.”

“Do that. Don’t worry about me, I’ll make sure I’m not seen.”

Cheris decided to trust the talking fox. She pulled on black jeans, a black t-shirt with the fire-ringed ashhawk logo of the Kel Business College, and her black jacket with the raven luckstone in its pocket. She walked down to the Student Union of Scattered Needles, one of the better places to buy breakfast on campus. It was winter, and immense icicles hung from the roof, so thick that in many places they blended into solid sheets of ice. She pushed open the big double doors and nearly tripped over a student sitting on the floor.

“What the-- Vahenz?”

“Morning, Cheris,” Vahenz said. She and at least a hundred others sat in the main hall of the Union, all wearing identical eye-searing neon green t-shirts with black lettering:

 

_ Society for the _

_ Promotion of _

_ Independent _

_ Democracies in _

_ Emerging _

_ Regions _

 

“What’s this about?” Cheris asked.

“We’re protesting the University’s involvement with corporations that sacrifice democratic progress in the developing world for their own business interests,” she said. Another sitting protester passed her a paper box of pastries. She took one overflowing with lemon custard before passing it on to the next sitter.

“By sitting in the Union?”

“It’s about raising awareness.”

“Right.” Cheris picked her way through the maze of seated protestor toward the café, and was accosted by several attempts to hand her a flyer on neon green paper. She ordered black coffee and a bagel with cream cheese, and sat down at a window seat.

Jedao sat just outside, looking at her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Mothdome for requesting this AU!


End file.
